Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Sunday, July 26, 2009

FAA-- "Feds Against Aviation"

I stopped by the FBO at my home airport earlier this summer. The woman at the desk was typing something up on the computer, which I've rarely seen her do before. So I asked, out of idle curiosity, what she was doing. She said she was typing up a "business case" for selling charts. I noted that they already sold charts.

Well, it seems that the jolly bastards at the FAA are going to stop distributing charts to every chart seller that does not do at least $5,000 in volume each year. Which most small airports do not.

The standard VFR chart is a "sectional chart". They cost about eight or nine bucks a pop and they come out twice a year. Most pilots who don't do a lot of cross-country flying need only the local sectional. They might also buy the local regional Airport and Facility Directory for about six bucks; the A/FD is published every two months or so. If you fly near a big city, you may need a chart of the local Class B area, what was formerly known as a TCA Chart, for about another six bucks or so.

That's not a lot of stuff, $56- $70 or so. You'd need a hundred active local pilots who keep everything current in order to make the FAA's minimum and, to be frank about it, a lot of guys don't bother. It's not like the airports move around the map and if you do a computerized briefing before each flight, you'll catch the changes. A lot of the chart purchases come from pilots at the airports who see the rack of charts and realize that they need one or two.

The FAA, obviously, wants to push people to using the online chart retailers. I don't think that is good, as it just means that more people will be flying around with outdated charts. That's almost too much of a common-sense conclusion for the FAA, I guess.

5 comments:

PhysioProf said...

This may be a stupid question, but why would these charts have to change twice a year?

Comrade Misfit said...

That's how often the Feds issue them. The old ones become "obsolete for navigation".

Anonymous said...

Government annoyingly and unnecessarily intruding into something? The Hell you say!

Eck! said...

I guess they forgot it's all about safety... and thanks to the repubs they have a budget issue soo.. it's mail order maps. Feh!

While airports don't move, towers do pop up and other objects to forward flight
like tall cranes and what not do.

again das gov does not so much.

Eck!

Sarah said...

Yes, it's a shame. The small airports won't have charts anymore so it's mail order or visit the big airport ( if there is one nearby. )

If anyone is curious, here is a link to an online version of the VFR sectionals: skyvector

There is an awful lot of information packed on these charts, and frequencies, nav aids, even airports do come and (more usually) go.